


Jeopardy!

by okemmelie



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, a weird mix of angst and comedy ?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:02:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21885631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okemmelie/pseuds/okemmelie
Summary: Charlotte finds out her husband is cheating on her and does the only logical thing she can think of: She visits the office flirt, Ted, at his apartment and sleeps with him. Because it's not really cheating if her husband cheated first. And it's not really dating if she tells herself it isn't. And she still loves Sam so it's all alright.
Relationships: Charlotte/Ted (The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals)
Comments: 33
Kudos: 28





	1. What is cheating?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stry](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=stry).



> this is dedicated to my bro, stry, with a prompt from stry himself: "charted + "i love you" + bittersweet ending", so uhhh. buckle up kiddos!

It’s cold out. Her breath is visible in the air and she’s walking as fast as her legs allows her. She didn’t bring her bus card and Sam’s busy with work, so he can’t pick her up. Sure, she sometimes wishes he could be at their apartment more often, but she understands. He does important work and the town is lucky to have him.

The police station is on the way. Well, almost. It’s enough on the way for her to decide to swing by real quick before leaving him to his work again. She used to do that far more often back when she didn’t have a job. Now she has a job and it makes her miss Sam. He misses her too. He says so every night when he comes back and goes to sleep. It’ll be nice for both of them when she stops by.

Dark. The entire building is dark. All the lights have been turned off and not a single soul is visible in the building. Not a single car is visible in the parking lot. Well, that’s not quite true, she tells herself. There’s one car. Sam’s. It’s old and partly rusted and it’s parked towards the back of the parking lot, tucked away in it’s own little corner. Strange.

She approaches. No harm in approaching. If it’s empty, Sam’s probably just locking some stuff up before going home. But it’s not empty. The windows are foggy and she swears she can see the car moving. It’s not a lot and she’s probably just being silly and seeing things. Then she notices that the backdoor is partly open.  _ Then  _ she notices the two people inside the car. A woman and a man. A woman and her Sam.

She doesn’t say anything. She walks away and she doesn’t look back.

Her hands are shaking and they don’t stop, not even as she tries to unlock the door to her apartment. The apartment she shares with Sam who’s her husband who’s having sex with another woman in a car while he told her, he would be working late. Sam who’s not here with her. Sam who’s– She drops the key. She swears under her breath. It’s shaky.  _ Fuck _ . She picks up the keys and struggles as she attempts to shove the right one into the keyhole. She’s not going to cry out here. She’s going to get the door open, she’s going to close it behind her and then she’s going to sit on the floor. And  _ then  _ she’s going to cry.

Once she’s successful with the door, that’s exactly what she does. She doesn’t even take her jacket or her heels off. She just sits on the floor and she cries and she screams and she lets herself feel broken She thought Sam had been acting different lately, but she’d just written it off as things being difficult at work. What a pathetic mistake.

Charlotte takes a deep breath. Then she gets off the floor and stops crying.  _ Get it together _ , she whispers to herself as she looks into their bathroom mirror.  _ You can handle this. You can handle anything _ . She washes her face, reapplies her makeup and goes to the kitchen to leave a note for Sam saying…  _ something _ . She stares at the note for a while, a long while in fact, before deciding that she can’t be bothered to come up with an excuse for not being there when he gets back. She’ll improvise if she has to.

His doorbell rings once. He hasn’t ordered pizza, so he doesn’t get up. It rings again. Then after a while, it rings once more. This time, it keeps ringing. That gets him up. He turns off his television, sighs and makes his way towards the door. He supposes it’s not too late for someone to show up, but he hates unannounced guests and he honestly can’t imagine someone worth dealing with.

“What do you want?” He asks as he opens the door. Outside is Charlotte, the hot secretary from work who keeps blushing when he flirts with her and who doesn’t  _ completely  _ turn him down despite her very obvious wedding ring. Okay, maybe she’s turned him down a few times, but she seems to like being flirted with and Ted still considers small victories victories. “Charlotte? Come in.”

He’s a bit confused as to what she’s doing here, but he’s not complaining. Sure, he was complaining moments ago, but that was before he knew it was  _ Charlotte _ . Why does it matter that it’s Charlotte? Well, in Ted’s many experiences with life, not once has a married woman showed up at his door like this and left before there’s been at least some making out. So he decides to be optimistic about this and he shows her to his couch.

“Sorry for just showing up, all unannounced like this. You must think I’m crazy.” She sits down on his couch and he shoots her a soft smile before going to the cabinet. She’s smiling but her eyes are glossy. That calls for wine.

He finds two red wine glasses, a bottle of red wine and puts it all down on the table in front of her. “Hey. It’s alright. Don’t worry about it.” He slips onto the couch next to her and grabs both of her hands, giving them a little squeeze. “I don’t think you’re crazy at all. You do, however, look quite upset. What’s on your mind?” Pretending to care is a great way to break through to the ladies in his experience. “Wine?”

She laughs a little. “Yes please.” He lets go of her hands and pours them both a glass. She eagerly takes a sip of hers. “It’s… Sam.” Another sip, this one longer. That can’t be good.

“Your husband?”

She laughs once more. This time, it’s a lot more bitter. “Yes. My husband. He, uh… he cheated on me. Had sex with another woman. I saw them together and now I don’t know what to do. I’m sorry I’m putting that on you.”

“No, no, no. Don’t be. I don’t mind, yeah?” He takes a sip of his own wine before reaching out for her hand. She lets him take it. “That sounds horrible. I’m sorry that happened to you. Is there anything I can do?”

She shook her head. “No. Or… I mean, this? This is fine?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

_ Good _ , he thinks to himself. That’s a good start. He moves a little closer to her and she doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, she too leans in a bit closer.  _ Even better _ .

For a long time, she doesn’t say anything else and he doesn’t either. They just sit close to each other, drinking their respective glasses of wine and thinking. Ted thinks about his next move. He also tries to figure out what she’s about. Probably about her husband, but maybe not.

He softly runs her thumb over the back of her hand. When she puts down her glass, he does the same with his. Then he leans in, just a little closer. He can feel her breath on his face and he wants to close the distance, but knows he has to play it a little longer. So he does.

“Is it cheating to flirt?” She asks. Her voice is low and her question makes Ted want to smile. He does, but he also shakes his head. “What about this? Is this cheating?” Once again, he shakes his head. She rests her hand on his chin, so he slips an arm around her waist. “What if I were to kiss you? Would that be cheating?”

He shakes his head again, but not a lot this time. “A kiss is a lot more harmless than sex. A kiss in comparison is nothing.”

_ Bingo _ . She kisses him instead. And what is a kiss anyway? He can taste the red wine on her lips and maybe he should mind, but he doesn’t. He really doesn’t. He pulls her body a little closer and before he knows it, they’re all wrapped up in each other.

Their clothes are on his living room floor, he’s on top of her on his couch and he’s about to push aside her panties when she tells him to wait up for a second. He does. “What about this?” She asks. “Is this cheating?”

He thinks about it for a while. Then he nods. “Yes. But he cheated on you first, so it’s not like it’s wrong.”

And apparently, that’s good enough for her, because they have sex on his couch that night. She’s gone before he wakes up and he’s more than fine with that.


	2. What is a restaurant?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is what happens when people ask me to write angsty stuff

Things with Sam doesn’t get better. In fact, they get badder. Much badder. Ted knows this, because Charlotte is a talker. And she’s a talker who happens to be in his bed.

They’ve had sex. They always have sex when they’re together, that’s what their affair is about. Sex and talking about Sam after. Charlotte doesn’t know who else to talk to and Ted doesn’t mind her talking to him. Having someone next to him in bed, complaining, is far better than being in bed alone.

“Thank you for tonight.” She smiles up at him and he smiles back down. “Is it alright if I stay over? Sam’s not at the apartment and I don’t–”

“–wanna come back to an empty apartment.” Ted knows what she’s going to say, because she always says the same thing when he asks. Maybe he should just let her speak, but he has a hard time shutting up. He leans down and meets her in a short kiss. “I know. And of course you can.”

She mouths another _thank you_ and he shrugs before wrapping his arms around her and going to sleep.

Ted wakes up before her and he catches himself spending just a little too much time looking at her. She looks much more peaceful when she’s asleep than she does when she’s awake and while Ted finds it sad, he also finds it beautiful. He finds her beautiful. And that kind of thoughts are enough to get him out of bed.

Careful not to wake her up, he makes his way out of the room. He closes the door behind him in a further attempt to keep his inevitable noise low. Then he makes his way to the kitchen.

Part of him wants to make her something nice, something he knows she’ll like. The other – more realistic – part knows that he’s a shitty cook and that he doesn’t even know what she likes.

What he ends up doing is probably not the best thing he could have, but it’s the best thing he could think of. He’s made four different egg dishes, attempted to make pancakes, toasted bread and put out a box of chocolatey cereal he has from when his sister visited. And what more could Charlotte really ask for? He could throw her out before breakfast and that wouldn’t be a problem, so if she complains about it he’s never doing this again.

He gently knocks on his bedroom door when it’s all done. Then he enters and makes his way to her side of his bed. “Rise and shine, sunshine.” His voice is a whisper and he leans down to kiss her forehead. “How are you feeling?”

“Mmm. Morning.”It took a few moments for Charlotte to properly wake up, but when she did she met Ted’s eyes with a smile. “Tired. But alright.”

Alright was good. Sometimes she felt awful, which was fair. She was cheating on her husband and all that. But alright was something he could work with. “Good. I’ve made us some breakfast, so if you’ll please follow me to the kitchen.”

“But I’m not dressed yet.”

“And?”

She stays quiet for a while, then follows him. “So what are we having?”

He doesn’t answer.

“Ted?” She asks again, but he still doesn’t answer. “Ted, what are we having?”

They’re now in his kitchen and Ted gestures to his table. He’s put a tablecloth over it and while it wasn’t the prettiest tablecloth in the world, he still felt like it had to count like _something_. It was some kind of effort. “Welcome to Restaurant Ted.”

It was a dumb little gesture, but at least there’s a smile on her face and that’s all he really wants. “Ted, you shouldn’t have.”

“Nonsense. Now sit down.” He pulls out a chair for her and she sits down. “What can I get you?” For a second he regrets not getting candels as well, but then he remembers that they’re just fucking and candels are for people who do more than fucking. Not that they don’t do anything other than fuck, but… that’s platonic. This is platonic. A tablecloth is platonic, a candle is romantic and Charlotte and Ted only fuck.

Charlotte thinks about it for a while. “I think I’ll have some baked beans.”

 _Fuck_. “I’m afraid we’re fresh out, miss, how about some eggs?”

She ends up picking omelet and Ted brings her the plate before finding something for himself. It’s a nice breakfast and he fully intends on not telling her how many different dishes he cooked.

When they’re done, Charlotte is nice enough to help him load the dishwasher and while Ted can totally handle it on his own, she seems to want to help out so he lets her.

“So what did you think of Restaurant Ted?” He asks while she gets dressed. “Did you like it?”

Charlotte laughs a bit. “I liked it.” She puts on her sweater and with that, she’s done. “It’s not a restaurant, though.”

“Shut up, it’s totally a restaurant.”

“Shut up, it’s totally not.”

“Totally is.”

“Okay, well…” Charlotte narrows her eyes a little bit. “Then where was the waitstaff?” Ted points to himself and Charlotte’s eyes become narrower. “The chef?” He points to himself again. He's got this. “The candles?”

“Oh, come on. Not all restaurants have candles.”

“Well, they should. In my opinion, they should.”

Now it’s Ted’s turn to narrow his eyes. He finds her jacket and hands it to her. “Hang on, let me just google something.”

“Whatever you need to do to make yourself feel better, Ted.” She says as she puts on her coat.

He catches a quick kiss: She did tell him _whatever_ he needed to do. Then he goes back to his search. “Alright, alright. Google defines a restaurant as: ‘ _A place where people pay to sit and eat meals that are cooked and served on the premises_ ’. No chef, no waitstaff, no _fucking_ candles. So, Charlotte dear: Suck it.”


	3. What is a date?

“Let’s go out tonight.” Charlotte says while dropping off a cup of coffee at Ted’s cubicle.

He looks up at her and raises an eyebrow at her. “Like on a date?” They’ve been sleeping together for almost a year, they frequently have dinner and breakfast together at each other’s places when Sam isn’t around, it makes sense for them to go on a date. Now, normally Ted doesn’t do dates. They’re too messy. For Charlotte, however, Ted is willing to make an exception.

But of course, Charlotte has other thoughts. She shakes her head. “No, silly, not on a date. Let’s go out and eat together as friends.”

Ted blinks a few times. “Oh. Yeah, that makes sense.” He doesn’t say he wants it to be a date, because he totally doesn’t. That was just a throwaway thought that’s going in his growing pile of throwaway thoughts.

“Great!”

“Great.”

“Can you pick me up at my apartment at six thirty? Sam has the car.”

“Of course. I’ll see you there.”

And see her there he did.

He pulls up to her apartment complex at six twenty four and shoots her a text to let her know he’s arrived. He exits the car and circles around to her door so he can open it for her when she arrives. She replies to let him know she’s coming down and moments later, the door opens.

Now, Ted’s always found Charlotte beautiful. He just can’t remember her ever looking as beautiful as she does when she walks down the stairs and towards him. The usual sweaters are cute and endearing, but a long dress? That’s not something you see everyday. Ted suddenly feels underdressed and regrets not bringing a tie.

“Wow.” He wants to say something more, something better, but that’s all his brain is able to come up with before she comes up to him. “Just… wow.”

She blushes a bit. “Thank you.”

He closes the car door behind her and then circles back around to his own side of the car, gets in and starts driving. “So. Where are we going?”

“Uh, out of town. To Clyvesdale. Well, not exactly to Clyvesdale, but close enough. Through Clyvesdale.” She tells him. “There’s a really nice italian restaurant not far from Clyvesdale and that’s where we’re going.”

He nods. It sounds good and he’s not a picky eater. If Charlotte likes it, he’s sure he’ll like it too. He has no feeling as to how long the car ride is. Keeping conversation with Charlotte is enough to make him forget all about what the passage of time feels like and he kind of likes that. It also kind of terrifies him.

When they arrive, he gets out of the car first and insists on coming to open hers. He wants to test how far he can push the boundaries of this totally platonic obviously not-date they’re having.

As it turns out, he can push them pretty far. He leads her to the building, pulls out her chair, holds her hand over the table and looks at her lovingly over the candle light. He asks her questions and she answers them, and he calls her beautiful and she blushes. He even intertwines their fingers just so see what happens. Nothing. Well, nothing outside of the fact that it makes her smile.

“So, you sure this isn’t a date?” He asks as she leans over to steal some of his ice cream while they’re waiting on her dessert to be brought out. He lets her.

She nods. Then she eats her spoonful. “Positive.”

“Alright.” He takes a spoonful of ice cream as well, then waits until the waiter has put down Charlotte’s tiramisu and left. “Because from where I’m sitting, it kind of looks like a date.”

“Oh?” She digs into her own dessert and is now kind of avoiding eye contact. “That’s interesting.”

He nods. “Yeah. Because, you know. I picked you up. You’re dressed really nicely and I’m dressed… sort of nicely.” He looks down real quick. It’s not too bad. It could be worse. “And we’re at a nice place and we’ve been doing all this cutesy date stuff and I have the overwhelming urge to pay and kiss you goodnight and whatever the fuck else people do on dates.”

Charlotte smiles a bit. It’s not the happiest smile he’s seen on her, but he’ll take it. “Ted, sweetie…” She sighs. “That’s all really nice, but this is obviously not a date. It can’t be. A date is between two people who love and care about each other. In a romantic way.” She adds the last part quickly. It kind of stings.

It’s not the most romantic thing in the world, but Ted takes out his phone. “Well, according to Google, a date is: ‘ _ A social or romantic appointment or engagement _ ’. And I don’t know you, but this very much feels like a social or romantic appointment or engagement to me.”

“Why is it so important to you that this is a date?” A hard-hitting question. He doesn’t want to answer.

He does anyway. “I don’t know, Charlotte, okay? I. Don’t. Know. I just… I guess I just like spending time with you and thought that after a year, maybe it’d make sense for us to go on a date?” He didn’t have a good explanation for her.

“I didn’t know we were participating in  _ romantic  _ engagement with each other.” Unlike before, her tone is now more teasing than rejecting. It works. He’d much rather be teased than rejected.

“I suppose we’re not. But I’d like to.”

“I’m married, Ted. I’m afraid I don’t have room for more romantic engagement than that.”

“But platonic outings where we dress up like people who go on dates and I act like I have tonight, how do we feel about those?” He reaches out for her hand again.

She takes it. Thank God, she takes it. “We feel alright about those.” He lets her live in the belief that they’re just platonic outings, until he kisses her goodbye in the car before dropping her off at her apartment.

“Thank you for tonight. It was a very nice date.” He can’t help it but to let that slip. It’s more than worth her lightly pushing his shoulder with a smile before she gets out of the car.


	4. What is a relationship?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't know why i have to start chapters in the most ridiculous ways possible but mamma mia! here we go again

_ Ring, ring _ .

The doorbell rings. Ted answers it. It’s late so he isn’t surprised to see Charlotte outside his door. She usually texts him in advance to let him know when she’s coming over, but not tonight.

She’s sad. Ted knows this because there’s tears running down her face, because she’s trembling, because she goes in for a hug rather than a kiss.

He wraps his arms around her and kisses the top of her head while attempting to close the door behind her with his foot. “Hey, what’s happening?”

She doesn’t answer him. Instead, she tip toes up to kiss him and, well, if she doesn’t want to talk about it, Ted’s not about to force her. They end up in his bed, like they so often do. They end up having sex, like they so often do. It is like it so often is.

“It’s Sam,” she says after a while. They’re still in bed his bed and they’re still all tangled together.

Of course it’s fucking Sam. “What about him? What did he do?”

“He found out about us, Ted. And– and– and he got mad. Really mad. Not just about that, about a lot of things. He yelled at me and I just had to leave, I had to get out and I didn’t know where else to go, Ted, I didn’t know where else to go.”

“Shh, shh…” Ted runs his hand down her back and pulls her a little closer. “It’s alright. You can always come here, alright?”

Charlotte nods. Only slightly, but she nods. “Alright.”

“Sam’s an asshole.” Ted knows Charlotte is going to try to argue with him as soon as she opens her mouth, so he just continues. “No, seriously Charlotte, Sam  _ is  _ an asshole and he doesn’t deserve you. When’s the last time he did something nice for you?”

She doesn’t say anything.

Ted shouldn’t push it. “When’s the last time he  _ said  _ something nice to? Took you out for dinner? Fuck, when’s the last time you slept with him?”

She keeps quiet for a while, but so does he. Eventually she answers him. “I don’t know. I don’t remember. He… he took me out for dinner the day after our 10 year anniversary. Or, well, I took him out, but he went with me. We ate out together. He said happy anniversary. And he came with me. That was a nice thing of him to do.”

“I mean… it’s not that that isn’t nice, but fuck. You could do better than that. You deserve to do better than that.” He presses a kiss against her shoulder and she sighs deeply. “This thing with Sam, it’s not a relationship. He shouldn’t be yelling at you. Not for cheating when he’s done that himself. He shouldn’t be yelling at you for anything. He should be a good fucking husband or he should leave you alone.”

“Well, what if I don’t wanna be left alone?”

His hand finds hers and he intertwines their fingers. “You won’t be.”

“You’re right. Because I won’t leave Sam. I love him. I know you say I shouldn’t, but I do. We’re married. We’ve been in a committed relationship for more than ten years. We’ve lived through so many other obstacles and we’ll live through this one as well.”

“Yeah, but–”

She cuts him off. “No buts. No asking google to define what a relationship is for us.” He puts his phone back in his pocket. “No more arguing either. If I wanted to be argued with, I’d go back to mine and Sam’s apartment. Shut up, kiss me and let’s go to sleep.”

And while he has so much more to say, he decides that it can wait. He doesn’t want to be like Sam, so he shuts up, kisses her and holds her tight that night. If she doesn’t want to listen to him talk about what a relationship isn’t, he’ll show her what is instead.

Waking up in Ted’s bed is nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe it should be. No, not maybe. It should be. But it isn’t. He isn’t there which is a bit out of the ordinary, but she can hear him on the other side of the door. She can’t hear what he’s doing nor can she hear his movement, but she does hear his humming. It makes her smile.

She decides to stay under the covers. What can it hurt at this point? Things with Sam are, well… they’re as they usually are and then some. Waiting to see what Ted has in store for her won’t change what happens when she gets back to the apartment.

As the doorknob begins to turn, Charlotte closes her eyes and pretends to be asleep. She almost cannot hear Ted as he makes his way to the bed, but she’s awake and she knows he’s coming, so she can’t help it but to smile.

He calls her out on it. “You’re smiling. It looks cute on you. Kiss?”

She opens her eyes. She’s usually against kisses before she has brushed her teeth, but he asked nicely, so she nods and meets him in a kiss. “What are you sneaking around for?”

“Well. I didn’t want to wake you up, but I did want to make you breakfast.” He points to the bedside table. “Baked beans, just how you like them. We’re eating in bed today.”

She raises an eyebrow at him. “If I recall correctly,  _ someone _ has a ‘no eating in bed, no exceptions’ rule.” She’d tried to bring popcorn once when they’d watched a movie, but that was a few months ago and maybe he’d changed the rules.

“Well.” He looks at her for a while and she can’t quite make out what it’s supposed to mean. “No rule without exception.”

They eat breakfast in bed, but they fuck on the couch. Because sure, no rule without exception, but Ted still thinks it’s weird and Charlotte doesn’t mind making that sacrifice for him. Besides, it’s been a while since they’ve fucked outside a bed. It’s refreshing.

Then they get dressed together and Ted follows her to the door. He kisses her. It’s sweet. Then he ruins it. “About what I said yesterday… I still stand by it. You could do better.”

“And what exactly is supposed to be better than Sam? You?” She puts a hand on his cheek and raises an eyebrow. “The office flirt who desperately hits on married women because he can’t find success in relationships on his own?”

He smiles. It doesn’t quite manage to reach his eyes. “That’s low.”

“Have you ever even been in a relationship?” She asks as she opens the door.

“I’d like to believe I have.” He gestures between the two of them. “ _ This  _ is a relationship.”

“This is an affair.” She closes the door and goes back to her apartment and _her_ _relationship_ and her marriage and her Sam.


	5. What is home?

Charlotte’s friend Jenny has gotten sick, so Charlotte no longer has plans for the night. It also means she has no one picking her up from work, but that’s fine. Ted offers to drive her, but she declines. She also doesn’t call for Sam. She can walk. She wants to walk. She needs some air, anyway.

It’s not a long walk. Or at least it’s not nearly as long as she wishes it was. She gets to the apartment complex and the car is in the driveway and she finds herself hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

Stepping inside, she’s pleasantly surprised. Sam’s there. Just Sam. Sam and no one else. She decides to greet him, to let him know she’s there. “Hi honey.” There’s a hopeful smile on her lips and there’s a beer in his hand and there’s no longer a smile on her lips. “You’re drinking. It’s not even five. Are you alright, honey?”

“You’re cheating on me.”

She didn’t want to deal with this right now. “And you’re drunk.”

“Am I not good enough for you?” Sam asks. He takes a step forward. Stumbles, almost.

“Yes, but– we’ll talk about this tomorrow, sweetheart. I think you need to go to bed.”

Sometimes Sam doesn’t listen. Sometimes he makes it so incredibly difficult to be his wife. But Charlotte is a good wife and she loves him even though he’s difficult. And Sam is a good husband, so today he doesn’t make it difficult for her to put him to bed.

He’s snoring loudly after just a few minutes and Charlotte leaves the bedroom to go sit on the couch. She doesn’t want to make too much noise, because she doesn’t want to bother him, so she doesn’t turn on the television. She just sits there.

_ Is it normal to feel like a stranger in your own apartment _ , she wonders. Then she stops wondering and goes to the balcony to grab a cigarette. Wondering makes her upset and she doesn’t like being upset.

It feels like he hasn’t been home for more than an hour when his doorbell rings. That’s unusual. He opens up anyway and it’s Charlotte. And that’s even more unusual. Sure, she comes here often, but never before dinner. At least not unannounced.

“You’re… here.” He steps aside and lets her enter. She hasn’t been here since… well, since he tried to convince her to leave Sam for him. He’s surprised she’s here, but it’s a pleasant surprise so he welcomes it.

She kisses him. There’s a million reasons as to why he shouldn’t let her kiss him without explaining why or how or what’s happening, but Ted knows Charlotte. If he asks, she’ll stop. If she stops, she’ll leave. And Ted knows himself. If she leaves, he’ll miss her. He hates missing her.

So he kisses her back and it’s nice, ‘cause he likes kissing her. But it’s also confusing, ‘cause she hasn’t kissed her for a while and she hasn’t spoken to him for a while and there’s no logical reason he can see as to why she should be back here, kissing him.

But she is. There’s no denying she is.

He brings her to his bed and things go as they usually go. They have sex and Charlotte tells him she ought to leave, but then she stays around a little longer.

It’s while she’s laying on his chest and his fingers are mindlessly trailing odd shapes on her back that he realizes how much he’s missed this. Sure, it’s only been two weeks, but it’s been two empty weeks. His bed feels much more comfortable with her in it as well and his arms feels much more right with her in them.

_ He _ feels much more right with her around.

Maybe he shouldn’t tell her. Maybe he should just take in the moment and accept whatever happened next. He wasn’t a planner, never had been. Never imagined himself being one. He liked to jump into things blind just to see what would happen.

But he didn’t care about most things. He cared about Charlotte. And he didn’t want to screw things up with her, so maybe it was fine to take a moment to think about what he would say. Was there anything to say? Anything good, anyway?

“What are you thinking about?” Charlotte pokes her head up and smiles at him.

He smiles back. “You.”

It makes her smile even more. He swears he can see her cheeks redden, but before he has time to decide that it’s a definite blush, she kisses him. Her lips feel like home.

Despite his commitment to thinking things through, he ends up asking her what’s on his mind immediately anyway. “Can home be a person?”

She shrugs. “I don’t know. Isn’t a home normally a place? Somewhere you live? You’re the pedantic one. You should know.”

“Maybe.” He thinks about it for a bit. “I’ve missed you, you know? I like having you around. I feel more at home when you’re here. It’s not as empty.”

“Homes can be empty.”

“Well, sure. I prefer them when they aren’t, though.” He suspects she’s talking about Sam. She often is. He also suspects asking is a bad idea. “Does your apartment feel like home to you?”

“What?” She looks confused. “Of course.”

Pushing it is a worse idea, but she doesn’t sound sure and Ted is curios. “Then why haven’t I ever heard you call it home?”

She raises an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean?”

“You always say, you need to go back to your and Sam’s apartment. You’ve never called it home. I’m just curios. Why isn’t  _ that _ home to you?”

Charlotte often stays quiet for longer periods of time when Ted asks her questions she isn’t prepared for, so he isn’t surprised when she doesn’t say anything for a while. But a bit too long passes and he decides it isn’t worth it anyway. “That was a silly question, I’m sorry I asked. Don’t worry about it.”

An hour passes and they don’t talk much. They just lay there in each other’s arms, sharing lazy kisses and long looks. Charlotte feels like home and Ted doesn’t want her to ever leave again.

But of course she does. She always does. She gets dressed and he follows her to the door. She kisses him once more. It’s longer and sweeter than any kiss they’ve ever shared and it’s nice. Kissing Charlotte is nice.

“I’m going to go  _ home _ . I’ll talk to Sam tomorrow. About counselling. We’re going to make an effort to make things work. This has to be the last time.” She smiles. It looks sad. Too sad for his liking. “Goodbye Ted.”

What do you say when the woman you love walks out your door?  _ I love you  _ seems a bit excessive, a bit overdone. “I love you,” he says anyway. But the door’s already closed and it’s too little, too late. If you love someone, you let them go and Charlotte never returns, so Ted must really love her.

He hopes Sam does too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> everyone's alive so that counts as a happy ending, right?


End file.
